Route Fifty
Molly Bolan
New data from the 2023 American Community Survey found that nearly half of the nation’s 42.5 million renter households are “cost-burdened,” having spent more than 30% of their income on housing costs last year. So, it comes as little surprise that a model promising permanently affordable housing is gaining traction.
Community land trusts and their shared equity homeownership programs increased 30% to more than 300 nationwide between 2011 and 2022, according to a report last year from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Ground Solutions Network, a nonprofit that promotes programs and policies that create long-term affordable housing.
Community land trusts are far from new—dating all the way back to the late 1960s—but the old-school model has been garnering renewed attention in recent years, said James Yelen, director of technical assistance for Grounded Solutions Network.
